NAZARETH, (PIC)
Under the cover of the ongoing bloody war in the Gaza Strip, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir issued orders to police leadership to tighten measures against the use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer in mosques within 1948 occupied Palestine (Israel), particularly in cities inhabited by Palestinians and settlers, such as Jerusalem, Ramla, Lod, Haifa, and Nazareth.
Israeli army radio reports that this step responds to complaints from Israelis who find the sound of the call to prayer “disturbing”. The directives include the confiscation of loudspeakers used for the call to prayer in mosques, and in cases where confiscation is not possible, financial penalties are imposed as a punitive measure.
In a post on the platform “X,” Itamar Ben Gvir said, “I am proud to lead a policy to stop the unreasonable noise coming from mosques, which has become a danger to the residents of Israel.”
With the Israeli aggression that began on October 7, 2023, Ben Gvir has intensified his inflammatory rhetoric, calling for the execution of Palestinian detainees, the complete annexation of the West Bank, and the resettlement in the Gaza Strip. He has also expressed his outright rejection of any prisoner exchange deal with Palestinian factions in Gaza, threatening to withdraw from and dismantle the government if such a deal is made.
The call to prayer will remain loud
Sami Abu Shahadeh, head of the National Democratic Assembly in the 1948 occupied territories, said, “The call to prayer will continue to resonate in all our villages and cities, and we will silence the voice of racism and racists. Those who are disturbed by the call to prayer should not live among us, as we reject racism and will not allow them to dictate our lives in our towns and to preserve our religious, cultural, and national heritage.”
Abu Shahadeh added, “It is unfortunate that Ben Gvir is not an isolated case in Israeli society, but represents a broad current that enjoys ongoing government support and submission to him and his agendas. This compels us to struggle with various tools to preserve our rights to our land, nation, and basic rights.”
Ayman Odeh, head of the Arab Joint List in the Knesset, said, “Ben Gvir is a transient figure, no matter how powerful he becomes, and the call to prayer is stronger than all racists and all man-made laws.” Odeh confidently affirmed the strength of the call to prayer, warning against efforts to create internal conflict among citizens. He cautioned all institutions that the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir government is methodically and deliberately leading toward this conflict.
Igniting a religious war
Ahmed Tibi, head of the Arab Front and Change faction, stated that “Ben Gvir is determined to ignite a religious war by exploiting the atmosphere of war to please his electorate, suppress the Arab community, and persecute Arab citizens. This time, he has targeted the muezzins and mosques. We will struggle against this oppression and Islamophobia.”
It is noteworthy that in late 2016, right-wing Jewish lawmakers proposed a bill to ban the call to prayer in mosques in Jerusalem and 1948 occupied Palestine. The bill was scheduled for discussion in the Knesset but was canceled at the last minute.
At that time, Deputy Health Minister Rabbi Yaakov Litzman from the United Torah Judaism party filed an appeal against the approval of the ministerial legislation committee for the proposal to ban the call to prayer, which led to the cancellation of the special session for voting on it in the first reading. The Shas Jewish movement decided to vote against the bill, fearing that its passage would lead to Jewish bloodshed, especially given warnings that such a step would drag the region into a religious war, which led to the failure of the proposed law at that time.
Arab Knesset member Walid al-Hawashlah said, “Our mosque minarets remain tall, and the voices of the call to prayer resound, no matter how much a fascist minister or a racist official tries to silence them. Ben Gvir and his ilk are incapable of extinguishing the call to prayer. Israeli society today calls for the release of hostages in Gaza, while the Prime Minister and an entire state are hostages in the hands of Ben Gvir and religious Zionist fascism.”
He added that the occupation and its fascist ministers are what the Israeli society wants.
Judaizing laws amid genocide
In this context, political analyst Yassin Azdine said in remarks to the PIC correspondent that the Israeli government is exploiting the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip to enact judaizing laws. Azdine added that the occupation desires a war against Islam and Muslims, emphasizing the need to confront these arbitrary laws with more steadfastness and resilience.
He explained that the Israeli government aims to seize land and erase identity, killing in the Gaza Strip, confiscating land and areas in the West Bank, and attempting to erase identity and culture in the 1948 occupied Palestine. Azdine said that Ben Gvir and his ilk in the Israeli government see this as the right time to erase the Arab Islamic identity of Palestine, and the war on the call to prayer is one aspect of this declared war.
He said, “They estimate that they can pass whatever they want in light of the shameful Arab and Islamic silence and the complicity of America and Europe, especially since the Trump administration includes anti-Islam figures and will thus strongly support such steps.”
He stressed that Ben Gvir will not stop at banning the call to prayer, which he describes as noise; there will be successive steps that may lead to closing mosques or seizing them. Azdine concluded by recalling that the occupation state demolished three mosques last month, two in Jerusalem and one in the Negev.
Calls for action
Hamas warned that the decision by the extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to confiscate loudspeakers from mosques in the occupied Palestinian territories of 1948 heralds an escalation of a religious war that Israel and its leaders are trying to ignite.
Hamas added in a statement on Sunday that Ben Gvir’s description of the call to prayer as “noise” is “a serious crime and aggression against our mosques and our people, and a new attack on freedom of worship.”
Hamas called on the Palestinian people in 1948 occupied Palestine to reject this “criminal decision” and to take action to prevent the Israeli authorities from tampering with sacred sites and religious rituals.
The Movement also called on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and international organizations to condemn this heinous crime and take steps to stop the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people.
Hamas said that the “Israeli fascist war criminals must be brought to account for their crimes against our holy sites and our people in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the occupied interior, and against humanity as a whole.”
Ben Gvir boasted on Saturday about confiscating mosque loudspeakers, claiming they are “a source of disturbance.”
